Listening With The Third Ear: The Inner Experience of a Psychoanalyst

Ella Fitzgerald - The Complete Piano Duets (2020) {2CD Set, Verve B0031519-02}
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© 2020 Verve / Universal | B0031519-02
Jazz / Vocal Jazz / Standards / Piano

Many of the most beautiful recordings in Ella Fitzgerald's catalog were her duets with pianists. The freedom afforded by this simple configuration resulted in some of her most sensitive, affecting and heartfelt work. This collection assembles every recording Ella made in the piano duo format - for the Decca, Verve and Pablo labels. It includes 1950's Ella Sings Gershwin, 1954's Songs In A Mellow Mood and 1956's Let No Man Write My Epitaph, all in one package for the first time.

The Majority issued eight U.K. singles on Decca between 1965 and 1968 without reaching the British charts, though they were a reasonably accomplished band, especially in the vocal harmony department. This CD has everything from those singles with the exception of the 1967 cover of the pop standard "I Hear a Rhapsody," omitted at the specific request of the group (and described as "horrific" in the liner notes). The Majority sounded more American than the typical British Invasion band, with harmonies and, usually, material more in line with U.S. pop/rock acts like the Beach Boys and sunshine pop groups than most of their U.K. peers. While it's fairly enjoyable stuff, it's easy to hear why they became a sort of "in-between" group, with too much going for them to get dropped from their label, but not enough going for them to score hit records…

This German release of the rare Canadian Capitol LP Don't Make Me Over not only contains the original dozen tracks from this long lost album, but 19 extra bonus tracks culled from various European singles, and previously unreleased material…

This box set is drawn exclusively from the years 1932 to 1939. You get 75 tracks of prime Ellington from the 30s, including the first recordings of a number of undisputed masterpieces, such as 'Sophisticated Lady', 'Solitude', 'Prelude to a Kiss', 'Clarinet Lament', 'Echoes of Harlem' and 'Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue', among many more. There are of course other great Ellington recordings from the 30s not represented here - his elegy for his mother, 'Reminiscing in Tempo', for one - for Ellington recorded for a bewildering variety of labels, and these are just the ones currently owned by Sony. There are no sleeve notes, and no listings of the musicians, which is a bit frustrating. But for a 3 disc survey of the period in question, you really can't do better than this.